Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-10-14
Bee-KeepinR.


contained an interesting illustrated article
on Bee Keeping" from which we make
few extracts for the purpose of noting
few misapprehensions about the habits of
the honey bee that are sometimes entertain
ed, even by scientific writers. Within the
last 20 or 30 years very great progress has
been made in the practical management of
the apiary, and skillful beekeepers now
control the inmates of the hive in ways
that would have been considered impossible
few years ago. One who gets his knowl-
edge Of bees only from the old traditions, or
even from the old editions of standard
works, is far behind the times in this spec
ialty. There are many wonderful facts in
the natural history Of the honey bee that
seem incredible to one who has had no OPP
portunity to verify them. That the worker
bees can, in case Of loss of the queen or
when preparing to send out new colony,
take an egg that would otherwise become a
worker bee in 81 days from the time it was
deposited in the cell, and make queen of
it in 10 days, is one of these wonderful
derstOod is the form of the cells of the
honey comb The writer Of the article to
which reference has been made saws it has
been the wonder Of naturalists and mathe-
mAticians for ages-not merely the fact of
building, but the manner of building. In
the structure of these hexagonnl cells, the
bee has solved for itself an intricate math-
ematical problem. 1t has chosen the foi III
which the science of geometry has proved
is the only one suited to the various pur-
poses for which the honey comb is designed,
and it used this form ages before men knew
anything of geometry.
The writer also says, speaking of the
queen bee that you can readily distinguish
her from all the rest, because her body is
longer than the others, and because she
carries herself in a royal fashion, surround
ed by retinue of loyal attendants We
take exception 10 the 'retinue of loyal at
tendants' There are facts enough that
are truly wonderful, without giving cred
ence to anything imaginative. We have
seen the queen scores of times passing over
the combs covered with worker bees, which
gave way to make passage before her, but
no retinue attending or following
The writer in the Youths Companion
says further: when Mistress Bee out in
the pastures, alights upon a flower, she
finds, deep in its sweet embrace, precious
liquid, rapidly deposited by the blossom in
warm and sunny weather. This she pro-
ceeds to gather. 1t is the honey, which,
being swallowed and digeSted by her, is sub
jected to some peculiar chemical process
before it is placed in the hive in the form
familiar to us all. g."
This is something that was once very
generally believed, but it is not fact The
honey gathered is not digested, and under
goes no chemical change 1t is simply
gathered and deposited in the cells without
change Each plant yields honey peculiar
to itself, and an expert can readily tell
whether it was mostly gathered from white
clover, Eastwood, raspberry, buckwheat or
golden rod. A bee will take a load of honey
or maple syrup, carry it a mile to its home,
deposit it in a cell, and return for more, all
in from 10 TO 10 minutes. We have fed
bees with high-colored syrup, and found
it in the hive, deposited in the comb with
out perceptible change.
Again, with more eloquence than accura-
cy, the writer says: when more than
one princess is born, the rivals engage in
an immediate and deadly duel and the sur
vivOr claims the throne from the mother
queen, who, with such loyal subjects as
choose TO follow her, goes forth into the
world in search of a new home, which the
bee-keeper has carefully prepared mean.
while, and the young queen remains behind
to carry on the work of her royal mother. ."
The fact is, in natural swarming, when
the old queen leaves with the first colony
there is no princess that has engaged in
deadly conflict with rivals, nor any rivals
to engage with. The old queen leaves the
hive with the first swarm about the time
that the Larvae in the queen cells, Of which
there are usually at least half-dozen, are
sealed over. Unless the first swarm has
been prevented from issuing by bad wealth
err, there are no young queens in the hive
for week or more after the old queen has
left it. Then, if no more swarms are to
issue from that hive, the conflict Of the
queens takes place, and the oldest, the
strongest, and probably in most cases the
httest-perhaps in some cases the most
lucky-survives If there is 10 be a second
or third swarm, the young queens refrain
or are prevented by the workers from de-
stroying each other, and at least one young
queen goes out with each swarm after the
hrst. When swarming is concluded only
the victor queen remains in any colony.